December Talk with Jamie McAnsh

It's almost Christmas and December is becoming more festive. Today we're talking to Jamie McAnsh, who is a director and founder of See No Bounds which is a business directory based all around an online business community. He runs the business with his wife Charlott.

 It’s December – is this a busy time for your business? 

As a business we are no busier or quieter than we would normally be, but for many in our community this is a busy time. For many of the companies we work with this is a fundamental time within their calendar year, especially those companies that work within retail. 

What we do as a business and as a community is support those companies to advertise, promote and sell their services and products that they have on offer in order to get them out to a wider audience. We support an online Christmas market for this purpose and last year it was about online shopping in lock down and this year it is both online and where they can find our retailers

Christmas is coming – what does Christmas mean for you? 
One of the hardest things to do when you run a business is to have time off. Christmas for us as a company is that it feels acceptable to take time off. 

You are not expected to answer calls and emails straight away and this is a great time to review, reflect and make plans for the new year.

What’s on Santa’s List for your business in 2022? 
On our Santa’s List for the business, it must be to gain more partnerships, more collaborations and to expand our franchisees. This will mean that we can organically reach more people and get more clients but more than anything that our community will grow.

By making the community grow and getting more businesses involved with See No Bounds it means that there will be a wider choice of more collaborations, referrals, and connections.

And what’s on your list personally? 
We love to go away in our camper van and on our personal list this year will be to spend time together with family and friends with lovely food and some great films as well as long mountain walks whilst away in our van.

What has been your greatest business lesson this year? 
The greatest lesson this year was from the awesome Mark Wright from Climb Online. He won the apprentice 2014 and taught us that the best way to build a business is to surround yourself with people that can do the thing that is not your strength. 

We implemented this as a business this year and surrounded ourselves with professionals that had the skills we did not have, and those skills and that knowledge is what will take us to the next level. A fantastic top tip that has already paid off!

What have been your business highlights in 2021? 
The highlight of this year for us has to be to have two nominations in the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, the launch of a new interactive website and the launch of See No Bounds Bristol Central.

What have been your personal highlights in 2021?
My personal highlight has been to get married. We have had such an amazing time over the last couple of years and when you get stuck in lockdown it can really test a relationship, so to know that we have become stronger and got married and started a brand new venture together is definitely the biggest highlight. 

My other personal highlight would be my TEDTalk which kicked my motivational speaking into a different level and I have been able to work with some amazing companies since and continue to do so and that also helps the exposure of our business and the connections we can bring to other businesses.

What will you do differently in 2022? 
Professionally we are going to concentrate on working through the strategies we now have in place and together with the growing team we will now be able to concentrate more o working on the business rather than in it. 

We have been so restricted for the last 20 months that we are really looking forward to meeting up in person and  being able to meet our community face to face. 

My personal difference would be that I am finally taking on the climb to Everest Base Camp after much delay.

Is ‘giving back’ important to you, your business or organisation? 
Giving back is pretty much the fundamental ethos of what we do. When we built See No Bounds as a community the idea was to help people communicate, advertise, and promote their business in an easy way with the support from the community. 

As a motivational speaker I always wanted to give back working in schools and learning organisations and many times free of charge because it is not about the money it is about the message. It is also about teaching young people that it is ok to fall over but you always must get back up. 

This also applies to businesses, and it is very important for us as a business to help people understand that actually the more you try, the more you learn, and the better you get and that is what leads to success. 

Will you have a nominated charity for 2022? 
We are looking to work with People Against Poverty and Business Against Poverty throughout next year and also for our upcoming trip to Everest Base Camp.

If you are planning to recruit in 2022 – share a little of your hopes around the growth of your team. 
We are looking to recruit in two different areas. Firstly, to recruit new franchisees which would mean that we can create local communities into more areas within the UK and that will help grow the business but also help more companies to reach a wider audience. 

The second area will be to recruit more staff members. We have recently been joined by a lovely lady who is our marketing assistant who helps us within lots of different aspects of the business. 

We are also keen to be an online based television channel where companies can come on, promote their business either through a chat show or a documentary series so that is the next area where we looking to recruit. We are looking forward to extending the team and with that bring more skills, experiences, ideas and knowledge to the table to help the community.

Have you got any special offers or deals you’d like to mention? 
We run different offers throughout the year but during December and January we would like to give a special offer to the readers and offer £60 off any annual business listing in our online business directory as a way of giving back to the community. All you need to do is enter the code READERSPECIAL60 upon check out and this will automatically be added as a coupon. 

What would be your best piece of advice for anyone in business for 2022? 
My personal top tip would be to stay visible. 

So many people will do the odd post, a bit of publication and a bit of advertisement. It is not enough. You have to be consistent. It does not necessarily mean to be on socials daily but just to be consistent which would also include brand consistency so people will recognise and identify that it is you and your brand.

Make sure you promote yourself everywhere but don’t pebbledash your audience. Make sure that you are accurate, concise, honest and on brand.

And finally:
Christmas is about celebrating and being with your friends and family.  Celebrating quality time, making memories and enjoy the special time and the love and joy that it brings. 

Another message I often share is to celebrate the small wins. All the small wins will bring the big wins so this year make sure to recognise all the small wins and on that note we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. 

For more information visit www.seenobounds.co.uk